Dungeons & Dragons Movie to Focus on the Eye of Vecna, Will Feature a Forgotten Realms Character

The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie will feature at least one character with ties to the Forgotten Realms and will focus on a quest for an iconic magical object. ComicBook.com can exclusively report that the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie currently in development by Paramount will focus on a group of adventurers looking for the Eye of Vecna, a powerful artifact that dates back to the earliest days of the game. Vecna is a powerful lich turned god whose hand and eye (remnants from when Vecna was a mortal) grant unspeakable power. Both the Hand and Eye of Vecna come with a terrible cost - in order to use either artifact, the user must remove their existing eye or hand and then replace it with the artifact.

Additionally, ComicBook.com can exclusively report that Paramount was looking for a male actor to voice the dragon Palarandusk, a dragon that lives in the Forgotten Realms. Palarandusk hasn't played any major roles in any D&D adventures, but the dragon was named in several Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks as a protector of the village Ieirithymbul who concealed his true identity as a gold dragon. While Palarndusk's involvement in the Dungeons & Dragons movie indicates the movie will take place in the Forgotten Realms, our source indicates that the dragon will act as an ancient leader of a group of Triadic Knights. In D&D lore, Triadic Knights are followers of the gods Ilmater, Torm and Tyr.

Our source indicates that Dungeons & Dragons will feature a group of adventurers led by Raven Hightower, a warrior with a magic flamesword that's haunted by his sister's death. Other characters include the "half-dragon" Hack Karroway, the gnome thief Olivan Trickfoot, and a masked warrior named Alyssa Steelsong who is set to take over Palarandusk's role when the dragon dies. Additionally, the main villain of the movie is a male drow named Razer Horlbar who once kept Raven and his sister as slaves, along with a female tiefling named Damala and a brutish warrior known only as "The Beast."

Using the Eye of Vecna could serve as a precursor to Dungeons & Dragons introducing the lich-god as an even greater threat, or even as a way to introduce other D&D characters. Notably, actor Joe Manganiello's Arkhan the Cruel currently holds the Hand of Vecna (as established in the recently released adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent IntoAvernus) and is attempting to use it to free the dragon god Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells. Vecna was a major entity in the Greyhawk campaign setting and also appeared as the final nemesis of the first Critical Role campaign. We'll also note that the new Dungeons & Dragons movie seems to be much more willing to incorporate lore from the source material, which was a major reason the 2000 Dungeons & Dragons movie flopped among D&D fans.

Dungeons & Dragons will be directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who previously directed Game Night and Vacation and wrote Spider-Man: Far From Home. Executive producers include Allan Zeman and John Middleton, and the script was written by David Leslie Johnson and Lindsay Beer. Paramount Pictures and Hasbro is supposed to be looking for a major A-list actor to star in the movie, with Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Foxx, Joel Edgerton, Dave Bautista, Jeremy Renner, or Johnny Depp all on an alleged wish list. Numerous other Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts have also expressed interest in appearing in a movie, including Joe Manganiello and WWE Superstar Ember Moon.

While no casting has been announced, Dungeons & Dragons is set to hit theaters on July 2021.

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